What's the best Capture Card/Software combo for capturing modern hardware?

[fsquared]

In a bit of a predicament. I'm limited to Windows 10 on modern hardware for my VHS capture setup. I have two JVC SR-VS30U decks, and I need a good capture card for S-Video that works well on MODERN hardware. Additionally, what software is the best to use with it and what codec and color space should I use?

My plan is to capture it via the capture card method now and then once the VHS-decode software catches up, I'll use a Domesday Duplicator to get RF scans to truly archive the tapes.

[KarMa]

My plan is to capture it via the capture card method now and then once the VHS-decode software catches up, I'll use a Domesday Duplicator to get RF scans to truly archive the tapes.

The video is already stored on the tape as an S-Video like signal (luma and chroma already separated). I can't imagine RF ever providing a better signal for VHS, considering RF forces the luma and chroma to overlap in order to fit on a NTSC channel.

[Eric-jan]

A good video capture device needs a good stable video signal, a normal VHS VCR can't provide that, you need more equipment for that, or use a DV transfer device, like DV handycam with video input, or DV device like ADVC100/200 you need a firewire 400/800 interface card in your pc. you loose some of your color quality this way, they say. If you can buy a good TBC, capture then into Prores,to have some contol in post over your captures.
BMD, Magewell, have (semi) pro solutions.
btw the Doomsday Duplicator works only with a Laserdisc player, with the raw output of the laser, nothing else like that.
The BBC is archiving video onto Laserdisc in a special format, a normal laserdisc you can also copy the analog data from, a VHS VCR doesn't store the analog signal like a laserdiscplayer does, and a laserdisc has the audio track stored digital, unlike LaserVision.
Otherwise the BBC was doing exactly the thing you're now asking for
You should go for the cxadc capture method

[fsquared]

My plan is to capture it via the capture card method now and then once the VHS-decode software catches up, I'll use a Domesday Duplicator to get RF scans to truly archive the tapes.

The video is already stored on the tape as an S-Video like signal (luma and chroma already separated). I can't imagine RF ever providing a better signal for VHS, considering RF forces the luma and chroma to overlap in order to fit on a NTSC channel.

No no, not that RF. I mean capturing directly from the tape heads and saving the RadioFrequency signal and decoding it with software

[fsquared]

A good video capture device needs a good stable video signal, a normal VHS VCR can't provide that, you need more equipment for that, or use a DV transfer device, like DV handycam with video input, or DV device like ADVC100/200 you need a firewire 400/800 interface card in your pc. you loose some of your color quality this way, they say. If you can buy a good TBC, capture then into Prores,to have some contol in post over your captures.
BMD, Magewell, have (semi) pro solutions.
btw the Doomsday Duplicator works only with a Laserdisc player, with the raw output of the laser, nothing else like that.

It doesn't just work with Laserdisc. The LD-decode software just works with laserdisc, but the Domesday Duplicator hardware can work with anything that spits out an RF signal. You can capture any signal, but you can only decode it if software exists to do so, which in this case, it does. Someone is working on VHS-decode, but it's in early stages so it'll be ready eventually. For now, I want to capture with a capture card and eventually when VHS-decode gets better at decoding the radiofrequency capture from the heads, that will be my primary capture method.

Also, FireWire is not ideal. The decks I have are a dual S-VHS/MiniDV model and it has a FireWire port. It severely ruins the video when I export it over FireWire. After getting some samples, the colors look like garbage and frames are dropping everywhere. I need something that can actually capture from S-Video while working fine on modern computer hardware. FireWire is not going to cut it.

Edit: Also I'm reading over your post again and I think you're getting things a bit mixed up. I don't need to capture DV, I need to capture some VHS tapes.

Also, here's a link to a recent post about VHS-decode and its progress. https://forum.videohelp.com/showthread.php?t=394168
Yeah, it's a long way off. That's why I intend on using it once it gets better at decoding. For now I'm going to capture with S-Video like we all do.

[KarMa]

Also, FireWire is not ideal. The decks I have are a dual S-VHS/MiniDV model and it has a FireWire port. It severely ruins the video when I export it over FireWire. After getting some samples, the colors look like garbage and frames are dropping everywhere. I need something that can actually capture from S-Video while working fine on modern computer hardware. FireWire is not going to cut it.

I use the Hauppauge 1250. PCI-E with S-Video input. 8-bit 4:2:2 capture, fairly normal specs and there are plenty of other good cards. But this model actually ignores Macrovision, it just doesn't care about it.

There are a few different 1250s, so here is an old picture of that exact model I'm talking about. I make no promises on the others besides the pictured.
https://forum.videohelp.com/images/imgfiles/WC48DIg.jpg

[fsquared]

[QUOTE=KarMa;2562665]

Also, FireWire is not ideal. The decks I have are a dual S-VHS/MiniDV model and it has a FireWire port. It severely ruins the video when I export it over FireWire. After getting some samples, the colors look like garbage and frames are dropping everywhere. I need something that can actually capture from S-Video while working fine on modern computer hardware. FireWire is not going to cut it.

I use the Hauppauge 1250. PCI-E with S-Video input. 8-bit 4:2:2 capture, fairly normal specs and there are plenty of other good cards. But this model actually ignores Macrovision, it just doesn't care about it.

There are a few different 1250s, so here is an old picture of that exact model I'm talking about. I make no promises on the others besides the pictured.
https://forum.videohelp.com/images/imgfiles/WC48DIg.jpg

This looks good. I don't need to worry about Macrovision because most of these tapes are recorded by the little studio I work at, but that's still good if I ever need to. Does it capture colors accurately and does it drop frames?

[Eric-jan]

I said transfer, The DV device transforms the video into the DV firewire signal, so it's not a capture device, you can't capture DV...

[fsquared]

I said transfer, The DV device transforms the video into the DV firewire signal, so it's not a capture device, you can't capture DV...

But I'm not trying to capture or transfer DV. I'm talking about VHS.

[Eric-jan]

[QUOTE=fsquared;2562666]

Also, FireWire is not ideal. The decks I have are a dual S-VHS/MiniDV model and it has a FireWire port. It severely ruins the video when I export it over FireWire. After getting some samples, the colors look like garbage and frames are dropping everywhere. I need something that can actually capture from S-Video while working fine on modern computer hardware. FireWire is not going to cut it.

I use the Hauppauge 1250. PCI-E with S-Video input. 8-bit 4:2:2 capture, fairly normal specs and there are plenty of other good cards. But this model actually ignores Macrovision, it just doesn't care about it.

There are a few different 1250s, so here is an old picture of that exact model I'm talking about. I make no promises on the others besides the pictured.
https://forum.videohelp.com/images/imgfiles/WC48DIg.jpg

This looks good. I don't need to worry about Macrovision because most of these tapes are recorded by the little studio I work at, but that's still good if I ever need to. Does it capture colors accurately and does it drop frames?

your quotes are messed up... or you falsified them.... unintentional ?

[fsquared]

[QUOTE=Eric-jan;2562669]

Also, FireWire is not ideal. The decks I have are a dual S-VHS/MiniDV model and it has a FireWire port. It severely ruins the video when I export it over FireWire. After getting some samples, the colors look like garbage and frames are dropping everywhere. I need something that can actually capture from S-Video while working fine on modern computer hardware. FireWire is not going to cut it.

I use the Hauppauge 1250. PCI-E with S-Video input. 8-bit 4:2:2 capture, fairly normal specs and there are plenty of other good cards. But this model actually ignores Macrovision, it just doesn't care about it.

There are a few different 1250s, so here is an old picture of that exact model I'm talking about. I make no promises on the others besides the pictured.
https://forum.videohelp.com/images/imgfiles/WC48DIg.jpg

This looks good. I don't need to worry about Macrovision because most of these tapes are recorded by the little studio I work at, but that's still good if I ever need to. Does it capture colors accurately and does it drop frames?

your quotes are messed up... or you falsified them.... unintentional ?

Yeah that was unintentional. I don't know how it ended up like that.

[Eric-jan]

I said transfer, The DV device transforms the video into the DV firewire signal, so it's not a capture device, you can't capture DV...

But I'm not trying to capture or transfer DV. I'm talking about VHS.

A good capture will be very hard to do this way.... the VHS signal is very low in quality to start with, and this way is only for professional archiving, how big is your viewing screen ?
it should not be too big, otherwise it will look awefull like VHS is on a big screen.
btw. this here is the analog video capture group, and the capture part is just one data part of the bigger whole.

[fsquared]

I said transfer, The DV device transforms the video into the DV firewire signal, so it's not a capture device, you can't capture DV...

But I'm not trying to capture or transfer DV. I'm talking about VHS.

A good capture will be very hard to do this way.... the VHS signal is very low in quality to start with, and this way is only for professional archiving, how big is your viewing screen ?
it should not be too big, otherwise it will look awefull like VHS is on a big screen.

I mean, yeah. It'll look bad on a big screen because it has a low resolution as it is, but that's not necessarily what I'm worried about. I'm just looking to capture the tapes and having them look as much like the source as possible (ie. Accurate colors and no dropped frames)

[Eric-jan]

Best option would be VHS VCR with component out, (i have one) capture via component with semi pro capture device like from BMD or Magewell ( i own the Intensity Shuttle ) and the Panasonic ES35V (still around on the internet) gives a stable video output over all video outputs, not just component.
If DV gives you frame drops, your storage media you capture to, is too slow, on top of that, DV data rate is already not that fast.... because of it's compression.
Capturing to Prores gives also advantages in post with color correcting and editing on normal pc hardware.